


Original Copy

by Erisabesu (ErisabesuFic)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Artists, Comedy, Friendship, Humor, International Fanworks Day 2020, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:02:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22745227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErisabesuFic/pseuds/Erisabesu
Summary: "...Yamato stands beside Sai in front of an oversized canvas roughly ten feet tall and eight feet wide.  It is massive, leaning against the wall on a tarp that covers the floor boards.  Sai regards the painting with extreme focus, and inclines his head, one fist under his chin.  Yamato frowns.  He mirrors Sai’s position, inclining his head and placing one fist under his chin, trying to see what Sai sees."
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Yamato | Tenzou, Sai & Yamato | Tenzou
Comments: 10
Kudos: 54





	Original Copy

**“Original Copy”**

♦

Yamato crosses paths with Sai one day, which isn’t too unusual, but he notices that Sai’s typically unreadable face has wrinkles between his brows and his shoulders are slightly hunched. Yamato stops to chat for a bit, see if he can offer a friendly ear. Sai asks Yamato to give him some advice, inviting him over to his art studio.

It’s a short walk. Instead of drinking beers on the ratty studio couch as they’ve done on occasion, Yamato stands beside Sai in front of an oversized canvas roughly ten feet tall and eight feet wide. It is massive, leaning against the wall on a tarp that covers the floor boards. Sai regards the painting with extreme focus, and inclines his head, one fist under his chin. Yamato frowns. He mirrors Sai’s position, inclining his head and placing one fist under his chin, trying to see what Sai sees. To him the whole canvas looks completely white, not even a drip or ripple of paint to mar the surface.

He’s still pondering the painting when Sai turns abruptly on his heel, and collapses into a nearby bean-bag chair, fingers steepled on his chest. 

“Yamato-taichou.” Sai says. 

Yamato turns to him, expectantly. “Hm?”

“What inspires you?”

Yamato shrugs. “I don’t know. I’m not an artist, Sai.”

Sai tilts his head, considering. “Then, what inspires your life?”

“Kakashi-senpai,” Yamato answers automatically. 

There’s a beat before Yamato realizes the weight and significance of what he’s just said, and so he crosses his arms and coughs. “Er, well, you know. He’s … someone I look up to. Er… yeah.”

Sai doesn’t seem to register Yamato’s flustered speech, his gaze now glued to the blank canvas. He gets up and returns to his previous spot, head inclined and one fist below his chin. “Kakashi-san,” Sai murmurs. “Maybe he’s what I should paint…” 

Yamato pulls a face, feeling uncomfortable with the idea of Sai painting his Senpai. “What? Why?”

Sai gives him a curious look. “Well, he’s our next Hokage, for one.”

Yamato crosses his arms, and taps his fingers in annoyance, unable to argue with Sai’s reasoning. He doesn’t like this idea at all. Sai moves to where his paints and brushes are and begins squeezing tubes onto a palette. Yamato watches Sai slather and smear a bit of this, and a little of that, until he’s ready to push bristles into the canvas and carve deep sweeping lines that don’t actually look like a whole lot. For the higher sections of canvas, Sai stands on a step-stool and uses an oversized brush, sweeping pigment into shapes that might make sense to an artist, but no one else.

Yamato sighs in relief, recalling Sai’s penchant for abstract works. He moves over to the bean bag chair and sits in it, watching Sai’s progress. The studio’s lack of in-progress works confirms his supposition that Sai has been in a slump, and he thinks it’s good that Sai is painting again. Yamato has no other pressing business for the time being, so he watches Sai’s art-making process, fascinated by his supreme focus and energy. 

The brush swishes and dips and spreads tones of black, navy, ochre, and peach. The color blocks are meaningless, yet pleasant, innocuous until Sai adds a few shapes of gray and a slash of blue-white, and all of a sudden the different shapes merge together in an optical trick so that Yamato _sees_ what Sai is painting: Kakashi-senpai. 

Yamato’s brows meet above his eyes, and he sits forward a bit in his seat. Once his brain has made sense of the image, he can’t unsee that the painting is an oversized depiction of his lover wearing ANBU gear and brandishing a kunai, the glow of his signature lightning-jutsu cutting a streak through everything else. 

It’s Kakashi, and yet it’s not - the colors and angles suggest enough of Kakashi’s form that the painting’s subject is immediately identifiable and completely recognizable, and yet the proportions are off. The legs are not quite right, and the shoulders don’t match the lines that Yamato knows intimately by the touch of his hands and the pulse under his skin.

He gets the concept of artistic license and style, and with any other subject he could ignore the inaccuracies--but it just _annoys_ him because if Kakashi-senpai is going to be immortalized on a canvas, he should be immortalized properly. He gets up from the bean bag chair and stands with his arms crossed beside Sai, jaw jutting out in criticism. 

“Sai, wait, hang on,” he says, deliberately interrupting. “The length of his legs is all off. It needs to be fixed.”

Sai tilts his head, considering, and then pouts. “I like it this way. It’s more artistic when I do it from memory.”

“But it’s not to scale,” Yamato insists. He points an accusatory finger at the painting. “Senpai’s legs are longer here, and here. And his butt isn’t like that, it’s more like this,” he gestures with his hands in the air, trying to get the point across. 

Sai looks at him dubiously. Tenzou sighs and flings his arms in frustration. Then he has an idea, and he reaches for Sai’s brush. 

“Wait, I’ll just show you. Here, look--”

“- _-Taichou_ ,” Sai pivots out of range, grip tightening on his brush and palette. His eyes flash in warning. “This is _my_ painting.”

Yamato holds his hands up in apology. “Fine, okay. My bad.” He runs fingers through his hair in frustration. “There’s just a few details that are off. Senpai is more… he’s just… if there was a way I could show you…”

Then the light bulb goes off. Of course there’s a way he can show him.

Yamato pushes up his sleeves and makes the seals for the First’s jutsu. He produces a life-sized, 1:1 scale mokuton bunshin in the exact likeness of Kakashi-senpai wearing an ANBU uniform, and positioned the same way as in Sai’s painting, holding a kunai in mid-strike and his right hand tensed with holding the _Raikiri_.

“See?” Yamato says, circumnavigating his sculpture slowly to let the evidence speak for itself. “ _This_ is an accurate likeness. Also the shoulders in the painting aren’t wide enough. They should slope starting here,” he continues, tracing his fingertips over the sculpture’s muscular contours.

Sai’s eyes roam all over the statue, up and down and back. Yamato would have prickled at the audacity of anyone else daring to leer at Senpai like that, but he recognizes in Sai’s gaze the kind of artistic fervor he’s only seen from him a handful of times in the past, and allows his former subordinate to drink in the details of Kakashi-senpai in all his glory.

Sai sets down the paintbrush and palette, and approaches the statue. He inclines his head, one fist held under his chin, and slowly walks a circle around Kakashi, much as Yamato had done moments before. When he’s behind the statue, he bends a knee to the floor and cocks his head, peering intently at Kakashi’s ass. Yamato clenches his teeth. 

“I see what you mean, Yamato-taichou,” Sai says. He reaches a hand out to caress the sculpture. “The shape of his butt is--”

“--not to be touched,” Yamato cuts in, clamping a hand around Sai’s forearm to prevent any contact. They look at each other; Yamato releases Sai’s arm. Then Yamato adds, “By anyone but me.”

Sai’s mouth quirks at the corner, and he nods, then rises to his feet. “Understood, Yamato-taichou. My bad.”

Yamato waves at him to continue, and Sai completes his slow appraisal back around to the front of the statue. 

“Taichou?” Sai asks after a moment.

“Hmm?”

“Can you make one in another position?”

Yamato crosses his arms. “ _What_ position?”

Sai thinks for a moment. “Something like this?” He backs up and checks the surrounding area before he demonstrates a taijutsu kick that could respond to the first sculpture’s position.

Yamato’s brows lift in intrigue. He moves to an open area of the studio and shakes out his hands before engaging his unique technique to create a life-sized Kakashi-senpai, in a 1:1 scale replica of Sai’s taijutsu move.

Sai’s eyes are wide with appreciation, and Yamato’s belly flips with pride. 

“Taichou, another,” Sai requests, making another taijutsu move, and Yamato answers with another life-sized Senpai. 

They continue in a sort of frenzy, Sai demonstrating and Yamato copying until the studio is full of wooden sculptures of life-sized Kakashi’s sparring with other life-sized Kakashi’s in a choreographed sequence that takes their breath away. It goes on until the studio is too crowded to maneuver, even after lining all the statues up as close to each other as possible. 

Breathless and a bit sweaty, they call a halt to the activities and Sai fetches them both a beer from the mini fridge. The couch has been barricaded in the corner with the bean bag chair, so they drink and lean against the wall, surveying the rather bizarre scene that has been conceived in the studio. 

Sai grabs a sketchbook and his pencils and sits down on the floor with his beer, filling the pages with drawings, and flipping back and forth between them, lost in thought. Yamato watches for a while, pleased that Sai is getting Senpai’s perfect proportions right this time. When he sees that Sai is probably back on track with his artwork, Yamato approaches the closest sculpture of Kakashi-senpai and puts an arm around the gleaming wood of his neck. He salutes the room of Senpais with his beer, downs the rest of it in a single swig, and then takes his leave, knowing Sai will be occupied for quite some time with these exercise sketches until his next inspiration strikes.

♦

[two months later]

♦

Yamato glances up when Naruto barrels into the tea shop, interrupting the pleasant afternoon he was sharing with his Senpai, drinking tea and eating dango side by side.

“Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto cries out, face beaming. “Oh hey, Yamato-taichou! You guys will never believe what I found!”

Naruto plops down opposite them and digs around in his knapsack, which leaves a fine dusting of sand on the tablecloth. 

Kakashi sets down his tea cup out of the way. “Did you just return from Suna, Naruto?” he asks.

“Yeah,” Naruto grins, “Gaara says hi by the way.” He digs into the furthest corner of his bag and finally produces a small book about half the size of an Icha Icha novel, small enough to fit in his palm. He thrusts it in the air. “Found it! Take a look at this!”

Naruto hands it over to Kakashi, and Yamato leans closer to his boyfriend so he can see what kind of book it is. It has no title, just the symbol of Konoha on the red cover. Kakashi turns it over with his gloved hands, and then opens it in the middle, where there are two illustrations of ANBU shinobi facing each other. Yamato peers closer, and then balks - the illustrations are none other than _Senpai_ , complete with his wild silver hair and scar across his left eye. Kakashi turns the page, and then the next, and the figures move slightly across the surface. 

“Why are there drawings of me in a book?” he asks, just as Yamato asks, “Where did this come from?” 

“They’re selling them everywhere!” Naruto replies, chuckling. “You sure have a lot of fans, Kakashi-sensei!”

“Hmmmm, this reminds me of something,” Kakashi comments, turning another few pages.

“Right?” Naruto replies. He grabs for the book and holds it facing them. “I used to love these things! Watch this,” he instructs, then uses his thumb to flip the pages from one end to the other.

Yamato’s stomach drops at the sight of the pages flipping to animate the illustrated versions of Kakashi-senpai completing a sparring session with himself-- _exactly_ like the one he and Sai staged in the art studio a couple of months ago. He stands abruptly, appalled that this booklet exists, and plans to go directly to Sai and give him a piece of his mind when there’s a hand on his wrist that squeezes just enough to keep him rooted to the spot.

“Just a minute,” Kakashi says, tugging Yamato’s sleeve in a request to sit back down. Yamato sits.

“May I borrow this, Naruto?” Kakashi asks his former student, and Naruto laughs.

“Sure thing! Go ahead and keep it, I’ve got plenty more for souvenirs - they’re selling like hotcakes!” 

“Thank you,” Kakashi replies, thumbing through the book again.

Naruto brushes off his knapsack and slings it back over his shoulder. “Anyways, I’ve got to get back to Sasuke, haven’t stopped at home yet. But I saw you guys here and thought you’d be excited to know that these are the hottest commodities all over Suna, Grass, Cloud - everywhere! Whoever made these books is probably raking in the cash--you should demand your fair share, Kakashi-sensei!”

“I’ll consider it,” Kakashi replies, fingers deceptively light on Yamato’s sleeve. Yamato swallows.

“Well bye! See you later!” Naruto offers a cheery wave and then disappears through the tea shop’s curtains, leaving Yamato alone with Kakashi and the unexpected surprise book.

Kakashi shifts his hand from Yamato’s arm to his leg, patting his thigh gently under the table, though to Yamato it feels like some kind of warning. 

“So, Tenzou,” he says, placing the book on the table and tapping it with his finger. “What exactly do you know about this?”

Yamato sighs and hunches his shoulders in defeat, then turns to him. “Senpai, I’ve never seen that book before, and I have no idea how it got produced or distributed,” he insists, pointing to the offending object, “But I … might know what inspired the idea, er, just a teensy-weensy bit, although I never would have guessed he’d do something like this, and he clearly took things too far and I’m gonna lecture him into tomorrow--”

Kakashi lifts a finger to stop him. “Sai, you mean?”

Yamato nods. “I can recognize his drawings. You wouldn’t believe how inaccurate they were before,” he mutters. “But I really had no idea he was planning something like this! Last we talked was more than a month ago, anyhow.”

Kakashi’s eyes crinkle closed in a smile, and the hand on Yamato’s thigh tightens once. “Then let’s go see him, shall we? I want to hear more about this… inspiration of his.”

“Yes, Senpai…” Yamato answers, dejected. 

Kakashi pockets the book and Yamato settles the bill, and they leave the teashop for Sai’s studio. Kakashi’s pace is calm and unhurried, but the casual hand resting on the back of his flak jacket makes Yamato feel like he’s heading for Ibiki's interrogation room, and beads of sweat appear at his temples. He hopes the sculptures he made aren’t still there--how the hell would he explain it?

Yamato knocks on the door, and they don’t have to wait long for Sai to open it. He smiles, toweling the paint from his hands with a rag.

“May we come in?” Kakashi asks, before stepping past Sai and entering the space anyhow.

“Of course, Kakashi-san,” Sai answers. 

Yamato follows quickly on Kakashi’s heels, pushing past him into the room and then groaning when he sees that the studio is indeed still crammed full of wooden sculptures weaving through a battle scene. The walls and every available space are also filled with paintings and murals that tell the same story as the flip book. 

Yamato presses hands to his cheeks and takes it all in with eyes wide, dreading Kakashi’s reaction. Then he gets pissed off--how dare Sai sell images of Kakashi-senpai for profit.

Yamato rounds on his former subordinate. “Sai! What is the meaning of this - why do you still have these statues all over your studio?”

Sai inclines his head. “Well what else was I supposed to do with them, Yamato-taichou? They are quite heavy.”

Yamato flails. “That’s beside the point! These weren’t meant for that!”

“Meant for what?” Sai asks, puzzled.

“Hmmmm, Tenzou,” Kakashi says, clapping his hands on Yamato’s shoulders and locking their gaze. “I think I’m starting to understand.”

“You are?” Yamato frowns, confused. Kakashi squeezes his shoulders and then moves him aside so he can inspect the wooden bunshin arranged in a careful sequence about the room.

Kakashi regards each sculpture closely, running bare fingertips across the contours and polished finish of this one’s arm, or that one’s jawline. He comes up behind another sculpture, and rests a casual hand around its hip. With the other, he produces the flip book from his pocket, and tosses it to Sai.

Sai catches it from the air, and begins looking through the pages.

“Your little business venture seems to be doing quite well, Sai.” Kakashi says. His voice is calm enough, but the air slowly fills with tension, and Yamato notices the studio seems a bit darker than it was before. He swallows.

“Oh,” Sai comments, turning another page. “It’s been printed.”

“Printed and distributed throughout every country outside of Konoha.” Kakashi walks forward, closing the distance and Sai and Yamato automatically adjust positions defensively.

“Really?” Sai looks up. “That’s incredible. That means my artwork has spread farther than ever before.” 

Yamato gapes. “You mean you planned all this? This was your intention all along?”

“No, it wasn’t. I don’t see why you’re upset, Yamato-taichou.” Sai looks at him, disappointed.

“You don’t? Obviously I’m upset!” Yamato shouts, pointing at the sculptures filling the room. “I didn’t make these for you to exploit Senpai like this!”

“What do you mean, exploit?”

“I mean how his likeness is being sold and traded all over the world!”

“Isn’t that good? He’s always been popular, and with the upcoming coronation ceremony--”

“--You had no right!”

“ _Gentlemen_ ,” Kakashi interrupts, and the air in the room starts to swirl with an impending storm, darkening the corners of the space with shadows that close in with Kakashi’s palpable anger. “I think it’s time for an explanation, hmm?”

Sai and Yamato speak simultaneously--Sai putting his hands up and saying “I had nothing to do with this,” while Yamato says, “Senpai, I was only trying to--”

Kakashi makes the seals and the ceiling swarms with black clouds and the rumbles of thunder that boom in the small space and silence all else. Yamato’s heart skips a beat, and he can feel the color draining from his face.

“Now tell me, just whose idea was it to sell artwork of me to our neighboring countries?” Kakashi demands.

Yamato shakes his head, and looks at Sai. Sai gives a small shrug and says, “The Hokage.”

The room is silent for a beat. Then the storm recedes faster than it had come, and Kakashi plops a fist into his palm, eyes wide in realization.

“Of course! Now it all makes sense.” Kakashi says. Then he laughs, eyes crinkling and one hand rubbing the back of his neck.

Sai blinks, and Yamato lets out the breath he’d been holding, leaning forward to brace his hands on his knees. Then he stands back up.

“Just a minute,” he says, facing Sai. “What do you mean the Hokage? What does she have to do with anything?”

Sai touches a fingertip to his cheek. “She has the original. I gave it to her for her birthday, as a token of appreciation.”

Yamato’s eyes go wide. “You mean… the Hokage…”

“Well, well,” Kakashi waves the air to dismiss the issue, and approaches the two of them, a little spring in his step. “The Hokage owns the rights to everything about us, after all, so there’s no use getting worked up over a little publicity and some extra income streams for Konoha.”

Yamato gives Kakashi a deadpan face. “No use getting worked up? So… you’re not upset any more?”

Kakashi shrugs, then cocks his head. “Actually, I have an idea.” He comes over to Yamato and slings an arm around his shoulders, pointing to the sculptures in the studio. “These are very nicely made, Tenzou. Impressive indeed,” he purrs.

Yamato preens at the compliment, blushing in modesty. “Oh no, Senpai, they’re just average.”

“Average?” Kakashi repeats, catching his eye. “No, there’s nothing at all average about the work you do, Tenzou.”

Yamato’s tummy flips in happiness. “Well I do try to put my all into anything that involves you, Senpai.”

Kakashi leers. “That you do, Tenzou, that you do. Which brings me to my idea.” He steers Yamato over towards a sculpture that has one knee up in a jumping pose, arms stretched forward after throwing weapons at its adversary.

“Tell me, Sai,” Kakashi says as he moves Tenzou in front of the statue and settles him within its arms. Yamato follows the instructions of Kakashi’s hands, backing up until his hips are aligned with the statue’s hips. There’s no place for him to put his arms, except on top of the statue’s arms resting along the outside of his ribcage.

“Do you know what type of fanworks sell at the highest price and in the greatest quantities?”

Sai shakes his head, but comes closer, intrigued. “Something mass produced, I suppose, but… What do you mean?”

Kakashi chuckles. “I mean _this._ ” He reaches into his back pocket and holds up a copy of _Icha Icha Tactics_.

“Huh?” Yamato frowns. 

Sai brightens. “Oh!” He plops a fist into his opposite palm, understanding something that Yamato can’t quite grasp yet.

“Exactly,” Kakashi says, locking eyes with Yamato and coming closer until he can slide his arms around Yamato’s waist and also caress the back of the statue. “So maybe we should start a new venture, since we have an abundant number of... props.”

“Understood,” Sai says.

Yamato can hear Sai moving around the studio in search of something, but he can’t look away from the intensity of Kakashi’s gaze and the feel of his body sandwiching him against the 1:1 scale replica made of wood. 

“Um… Senpai?” he asks, not sure exactly what his boyfriend intends with this subtle eroticism while their former student is present.

“ _Porn_ , Tenzou,” Kakashi grins. “It’s porn.”

“Hah?” Tenzou exclaims, completely thrown off. 

“Porn sells, and sells better than almost anything else,” Kakashi continues, matter of fact. “So this time why don’t you and I create some unforgettable scenes of--”

“--Senpai!” Yamato protests, coloring from his neck to his ears.

“--romance, without revealing my face, of course--”

“--But Senpai!”

“ _But what?_ ” Kakashi huffs in annoyance.

Yamato puts hands on Kakashi’s chest, keeping him at bay. “But … we’re _gay_ , Senpai.”

“And?” Kakashi tilts his head.

Yamato rolls his eyes. “So, who’s going to buy an animated flip book of two guys... er... making out?”

“Actually, I can think of quite a few potential customers,” Sai raises his hand, which now holds several drawing pencils. Yamato can see an oversized sketch pad under his arm and feels very alarmed.

“Tenzou,” Kakashi shakes his head. “You worrywart, there’s a huge market for gay porn. I’m sure we’ll get lots of sales.”

“Senpai!” Yamato protests. “That’s not what I meant!”

Kakashi looks over to Sai, then, deep in thought. “Although you do make a good point - how about we try some scenes with you in your sexy-jutsu form?”

“ _Senpai_!” Yamato scolds him, pushing harder on his chest.

Kakashi rolls his eyes. “Oh alright, fine, I’ll be the one to use my sexy-jutsu form--”

“SENPAI!” Yamato shouts, shaking the man by his flak jacket.

Kakashi grins, then peels the mask down from Yamato’s chin, and reaches for Yamato’s leg, which he hooks over the raised knee of the wooden sculpture, and holds him steady with the contact of his hips and groin. Yamato complies under duress, heart fluttering, guts clenching, groin twitching, fury bubbling in his stomach at his boyfriend’s unstoppable ridiculousness and unbelievably lewd ideas and positioning skills.

“Be careful not to get my full face,” Kakashi says to Sai, before slipping the infamous blue mask down to his throat. 

“Don’t mind me,” Sai says, taking up position with his sketchbook. “There’s nothing the two of you could do that would shock me. Pretend I’m not even here.”

Yamato angles a glare at Sai, and pushes against Kakashi to keep him at bay, but ends up transfixed by that delicious mole on the left side of Kakashi's face.

“Don’t worry, Tenzou,” Kakashi murmurs, licking his lips. “We won’t go past third base, this time.”

“Sen--!”

But the press of Kakashi’s mouth seals off any further protests, and after the first few kisses and flourishes of Kakashi’s tongue, Yamato decides that it’s not worth arguing about further now that the man has it in mind to recreate his favorite make-out tactics in a threesome with a wooden statue.

In fact, Yamato counts it as a win that Kakashi-senpai hasn’t requested a fully-functional mokuton bunshin or kage bunshin to join them in staging these love scenes in Sai’s studio that will be sold as animated flip books throughout the neighboring lands. So he gives up.

“Mmm, _Senpai_ ,” he sighs between kisses, their elevated heartbeats and panting breaths echoing in the small studio, accompanied by the noise of Sai’s pencil quickly recording every lick, caress, and grope. 

Despite the absurdity of the situation, Yamato feels rather smug to be the only one who gets to kiss and hold the real, the original, the one and only Copy-ninja Kakashi and next Hokage of Konohagakure. 

Everyone else has to make due with the fantasy.

  
  


—

Ω

**Author's Note:**

> Written for International Fanworks Day 2020, for the drabble prompt: “characters react to discovering fanworks they are in.”
> 
> Find me on twitter! @erisabesu3


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